January 1998 Newsletter
January 1998
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Dear Family:
Well, how does it feel in the year 1998? Isn't it amazing how fast
they go when you reach a certain age, and how slow when you are younger. I
remember my paternal grandmother cautioning me not to wish my life away. I
guess I would like a few of those years back just about now.
I must say that 1997 was a wonderful year from the Yarnall /
Yarnell genealogical point of view. When the year began, we had a database
of 5700 names, and by year's end that number has swelled to 12987. To begin
1998, my last posting was for George Yarnall, s/o Samuel, b. 1899 who is
family member number 13359. More importantly, the family gathering has
grown to over 125 wonderful cousins. Speaking of which, the Fourth Annual
Yarnall / Yarnell Family Gathering will be held in the Lower Perkiomen
Valley Park in Oaks Pennsylvania on Saturday July 11, 1998. So please
pencil us in on your calendar - we would love to say hello. I say this
every year, and will most likely say it again: Don't worry about not
knowing anyone, most of us will be meeting for the first time. I have
received messages from quite a number of family that I have not met and
they said they will be at the July picnic, so I will be in the same boat as
everyone else.
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We do have a problem of loosing touch with some of our cousins
after finding them. Our snail mail cousins can and do move from time to
time. The following people have been lost on the snail mail list, 1.
Charles B. Yarnall, Lafayette Hill PA, 2. E. Yarnall, King of Prussia PA,
3. Maxwell Yarnall, Metairie LA, 4. Marianne Yarnall, Limerick PA. If
anyone has the new addresses on these cousins, please send them to me.
This part of the message is going out to the Email part of the
clan only. With electronic mail, we are able to communicate in nanoseconds,
but the problem is that we can lose touch with each other just as quickly:
A broken computer, a changed system, a lost piece of software, and we are
lost again. To help tie the link we have established just a bit tighter, I
am adding my Snail Mail address; should you ever wish to get in touch with
me in that manner, please don't hesitate. I would ask that each of you
would send me your snail mail address also, so if worse comes to worse, we
will still have a connection. My address is: Fred H. Yarnall
3435 Vaux Street
Philadelphia, PA 19129
Secondly, for both the snail mail and Email cousins, it would be
appreciated if you would share the newsletter with other members of the
family if they are not presently on the distribution list. However, if that
is inconvenient and you would like me to send them their own copy, then
send me their address and I will add them to the mailing list.
Lastly, I would like to note that we have added several new cousins
to our database in the past week, and that is always a Christmas present in
itself, and a great way to starrt a new year.
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Again in the month of December we note the passing of one of our
own. Phillip Henry, son of Cynthia Lynn (Walters) Henry and Jimmie Henry.
Phillip, a descendant of Francis Yarnall, was born on September 2, 1977 and
went home to the Lord on December 2 1997, at the age of 20 years and three
months. It is always hard for us to say goodbye to a loved one, but when
they are very young, it seems much more difficult. Phillip had a pacemaker
since the age of 5 years, and although he seemed to do very well with it
and had frequent checks, he died suddenly. I know that the rest of the
family joins me in holding Phillip, and the rest of his family, up in
prayer.
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Dear Fred;
It has been a while since I have "chatted" with you but have been
busy with the holiday season. All our kids were home for Thanksgiving
(which we were thankful for) including our newest Yarnall family member,
Brooke Taylor Yarnall, born Nov. 19, 1997. (As far as I know her picture is
not on the internet). She was born to our youngest son Edward and his wife
Sally. Of course she is a very beautiful Yarnall baby.
Helen
Our new addition, Brooke Taylor Yarnall still needs for us to fit
her into the family line. We are looking for those old dusty records to
come off the shelves and the information sent on to us so that we can make
these connections.
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From our poetry section, we have a couple of selections this month.
First, from a bible that was returned to the Herb Yarnall household in 1986
after a considerable absense. It seems that a good Samaritan returned the
Bible for the price of a cup of coffee. In the pages were the various
reflections and items of importance to Herb's grandfather Walter Fairlamb
Yarnall. Walter and of course Herb trace their line back through Philip's
fifth son Thomas. One of the poems that Walter had pasted inside the covers
of the Bible was the following:
God has His own strange ways of answering prayer; as in the case of Paul
and Silas. One has put the truth in verse.
I know not by what methods rare,
But this I know, God answers prayer,
I know that He has given His word,
Which tells me prayer's always heard,
And will be answered soon or late.
And so I pray, and calmly wait.
I know not if the blessing sought,
will come in just the way I thought,
But leave my prayers with Him alone,
Whose will is wiser than my own,
Assured that He will grant my quest,
Or send some answer far more blest.
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I also want to take the time to publicly thank Herb for the many
messages of encouragement and especially the humor. Laughter .....It is
great medicine for anything that ails us.
The second selection from our poetry section comes from a newly
found cousin Dr. Eric Yarnell of Denver Colorado. We still have to gather
the data on Eric's family in order to be able to place his line. I have the
feeling that this poem comes from the heart of experience:
NEAR MISS
March 1, 1997, Denver, CO
the curb! the curb!
the snow and concrete conspire
to hurl the red jeep
as easily as crumpled tissue paper
into the sudden wintry air
then skating across into the forbidden lane
placed so near by,
with such lack of foresight.
its metal then
tears into the metal
of the white van
turning it to showers
of shattered brake light glass.
the dance of the other cars
disintegrates into each
trying to avoid
its ecstatic hurtling
toward oblivion--
each is saved for now
not by wits or dexterity
or a patch of ice
they didn't stumble over,
but by the miraculous largeness
of the space between them
which seemed so slender
a moment ago.
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Now from the slanty side, I had a riddle sitting on my desk for
about a year. Every once in the while I would look at it an try to figure
it out, and without success I might add. One day I showed it to my
son-in-law Alan, and in about 10 seconds he came back with the answer. It
really is a good thing we love him too. But now for the riddle: You love it
more than Life. You Hate it more than Death. A Poor man has it, A Rich man
does not. A miser spends it and you take it with you when you die. What is
it? Now I know some of you are going to claim to have gotten the answer
even before reading the entire riddle, and to you I just want to note that
my ego is already distroyed.
PART 1............
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A letter written by Joseph Yarnall and sent on to me by Chris
Swanson, gives some excellent information and reflections, that I thought
worthwhile to share with everyone....
One of the Customers at Yarnall's Garage mentioned to brother
Charles that he had a book which mentions the Yarnall name many times and
that he would be glad to lend it if Charles were interested. Charles
borrowed the book and brought it down for me to read. The title of the book
is Edgmont, the story of a township. It was written by Jane Levis Carter
and published as a Bi-centennial project by Edgmont Township. It was
printed by the KNA Press in Kennet Square and limited to two thousand
copies. Copies are still available; we recently bought a copy at the
bokstore at the Tyler Arboretum (on Rt. 352 near Gradyville).
Edgmont was one of the early townships laid out by William Penn in his
original Chester County, which stretched from the Delaware river westward
beyond the Welsh Mountains. The book chronicles almost three centuries of
social history in a still unusually rural township, one third of which is
now Ridley Creek State Park. The book has six hundred pages, with 350
illustrations, such as photographs, maps, reproductions of old documents
and artists drawings. There is an index, which very quickly leads you to a
reference to a name or place. The Yarnalls are mentioned on sixty pages. My
purpose in writing this document is to share with you a lot of the
interesting things the book says about the Yarnalls. If you have further
information, please send me some, so that I can pass it on to the rest of
the clan.
Perhaps the best way to understand who our ancestors were and how
they came to be in America and in Pennsylvania is to learn about William
Penn: - From his biography we learn that he was born in London in 1644. he
studied at Oxford: early gave evidence of strong religious impulses and
adopted the new doctrines of the Society of Frients. His excessive zeal led
to his expulsion from the university and a consequent estrangement from his
father. In 1668 he was arrested for attending religious meetings forbidden
by law and was tried before the court of common pleas and heavily fined. he
remained in prison for some time, refusing to pay the fine, but his father
ultimately paid it for him. In 1681, Penn, who had inherited from his
father a claim of 16,000 pounds against the government, obtained from the
King in satisfaction therefor a grant of an extensive tract of country
lying west of the Delaware river and north of Maryland and which, in the
royal patent, was called Pennsylvania. This territory Penn resolved to form
into a commonwealth based upon religious toleration. He accordingly set
sail thither, arriving in Delaware bay on October 27, 1682, and founded the
city of Philadelphia. In 1683 he entered into his famous treaty of lasting
friendship with the Indians. In 1684, he returned to England, where by his
influence with James II, lhe secured the release of 1200 imprisoned
Quakers.
After the accession of the prince of orange as William III, Penn
was twice accused of treason and was arrested in 1690 on a charge of
conspiracy, but was at length honorably acquitted in 1693. In 1699 he paid
a second visit to Pennsylvania and his stay, which lasted two years, was
marked by many useful measures. He died in 1718.
Before leaving London in 1682, William Penn had written his "dear
friend" Thomas Holme, who was already in America, instructing him to survey
his holdings. He enclosed a list of several hundred names of purchasers
from England, Ireland, and Scotland. Among these was Richard Marsh, a
Bristol merchant, with warrant for two 5,000 acre plots. By 1686, Joseph
Baker had bought 500 of Marsh's acres and was appointed Constable of
Giliad. Baker was apparently influential in changing the name of the
township of his settlement from GILIAD to EDGMOND, in memory of the Royal
Manor of Edgmond, in the county of Shropshire from which he had come. Thus
he endued the township with a name deeply rooted in English history.
Edgmond had anciently derived from the Danish Echmund-es-dune, or Eckmond's
Hill. This wide plateu, near old Edgmond Church is still plainly visible.
The Manor lay within the equally ancient Shrewsbury, or
town-among-the-shrubs.
In the year 1066, the Norman King, William the Conquerer defeated
the English, led by King Harold, at the battle of Hastings. King William
rewarded one of his French counts, Roger de Montgomery with a gift of the
Manor of Edgmond. A strongly fortified castle was established at Shrewsbury
by Montgomery to keep at bay the Welsh, who never gave up harrassment from
across the border marshes of the French conquerers. If we look at a map of
modern England and located Birmingham (England's second largest city) and
then look about 40 miles to the northwest, we will find Shrewsbury, and
looking about the same distance to the north the port of Chester, and a few
miles away the port of Liverpool.
In September, 1683, the ship Endeavor, out of Liverpool, sailed
into Delaware Bay, followed by the Bristol Comfort. Aboard was Francis
Yarnall and probably his brother Philip. Master of the ship was John Read
with destinations of both Virginia and Pennsylvania. Francis's inventory
included 1 1/4 cwt. shot, 3 doz. wool stockings, 40 ells of English linen
and 1/4 cwt. of gunpowder (sounds like he was a sportsman). Duty was one
shilling. Francis held a warrant for 100 acres in Springfield, of which he
later sold 50 acres to George Marris. Philip settled in Edgmont in 1694,
after marrying Dorothy Baker, daughter of Joseph Baker. The home Philip
built still stands on what has been lately known as the Sproul Lewis
property, before that, it was farmed by William Green, and in the later
1800's by William H. Miller. Dorothy Baker Yarnall was a devout Friend,
becoming a minister of the Society in 1727. At the time of Philip Yarnall's
death, they had ten children: John, Philip, Job, Sarah, Benjamin, Thomas,
Nathan, Samuel, Rebecca, and Mary. With eight sons the Yarnall name would
be well known in Edgmont for close to 300 years. (Sarah Yarnall Hutton,
still esteemed Gradyville school teacher, lived on the farm of her
grandfather, Horace Yarnall, which spanned the new valley road south of
Gradyville Road. It was part of the original huge Yarnall tract. Her
parents were Mr. and Mrs Irwin Yarnall. The inventory of Philip's estate
shows a Bible and other books. A Yarnall Bible, brought from England,
filled with Yarnall family notations is now in the Chester County
Historical Society, in West Chester, PA.
..................TO BE CONTINUED
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We have made quite a bit of mention about our family involvement in
the United States Navy and from time to time we have listed Paul Robert
Yarnall's webb page address because of the wounderful wealth of information
his webb page has for people with a love of the sea. I will repeat it from
time to time and encourage anyone with internet access to spend some time
looking over the information that Paul has gathered. As with genealogy,
this is a labor of love for Paul. He does not charge anyone for access to
the site and is willing to have people make copies of his untold hours of
research - as long as it is for personal use. If you do drop by, please
take the time to let him know you were there. His site is at
Http://www.NavSource.com, or he can be emailed direct at PRY@NavSource.Org
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I hate to give up on a good thing, so we will stay with the legal
profession for a while longer, and again, these are quotes from real
transcripts.
1. Were you alone or by yourself?
2. The youngest son, the 20 year old, how old is he?
3. Q: Do you recall approximately the time that you examined
the body of Mr. Edington at the rose Chapel?
A: It was in the evening. The autopsy started about 8:30 PM.
Q: And Mr. Edington was dead at the time, is that correct?
A: No, you stupid......He was sitting on the table wondering
why I was doing an autopsy!
4. Do you have any children or anything of that kind?
Well, unless someone submits a new set of lawyer jokes, I guess we
will leave them alone for a while. I know, I know....it's a big
disappointment for me also.
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I recently responded to an Email request from Nancy Brusseau
Marshall for information about Dr. John L. Yarnell, and and any of his
ancestors, because she believed that she was a descendant of John's. I sent
her what little information I had on that line, which has helped to create
the family line shown below, and Nancy responded with some additional
information on Dr. John L. Brown and his family - and I quote: The source
book that you have discribing the "Old Yarnell Place" might have been the
same that my grt-aunt found 30 years ago......the words that you typed in
your e-mail message are (eearily) so similiar to those that I read in her
spidery handwriting. However, she lists a book entitled "Tennessee, A Guide
to the Volunteer State", American Guide Series, Tucson Genea. Lib. Loc.
917.68.: "James Brown built a home in 1820, called "Yarnell House" which
was in James Co., TN (Now Hamilton Co. as they were combined in 1919). This
is in the Chatanooga area. Near Ooltewak (Cherokee Resting Place), six
miles right from Ooltewak is the Yarnell House. In 1825 James Brown was
elected Distrist Judge of the Cherokee Supreme Court. He had 100 acres
under cultivation and owned 28 slaves. His daughter, Jane, was educated at
Brainerd Mission and in 1825 married Dr. John Yarnell. Dr. Yarnell bought
the Brown home in 1838 when the Cherokees were removed from the area".
FYI, Gertrude Yarnell was a Daughter, not sister of Jane Brown &
Dr. John Yarnell. The info. that I have says the family called her "Tude".
Per my grt. aunt, Dovie Stewart Lawrence: "Tude traveled a great deal with
Grandpa Dick
(Richard Brown) on business trips and left her 6 daughters & 2 sons in the
care of her "freed" Negro, Jane Lawson". Jane also took care of Tude in her
last illness".
Nancy comes to us through Francis Yarnall's son Joseph as follows:
1. Francis Yarnall
m. Hannah Baker
2. Joseph Yarnall
m. Mary James
3. Daniel Yarnell
m. ? ???-???
4. Aaron Yarnell
m. ? ???- Dent
5. John L. Yarnell
m. Jane Brown
6. Gertrude "Tude" Yarnell
m. Richard Brown
7. Elvira Brown
m. John Wesley Stewart
8. Floyd Dewey Stewart
m. Olive Ann Prichard
9. Barbara Ann Stewart
m. Paul Arthur Brusseau
10. Nancy Brusseau
m. Andrew Scott Marshall
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In our October Newlsetter we started the story of Holton Yarnall
and his experience with Brandywine Springs. As a part of the story we
mentioned that Betty Blockus found her search for her roots were made
easier because her ancestors, Gideon Farrell Jones and Jefferson Peckworth
Jones, were named for Baptist Minister of the day. Well it seems that
another descendant of Baptist Minister John P. Peckworth read the account
on Paul Yarnall's webb page and sent the following :
Dear Fred:
Your Yarnall/Yarnell clan seems to be doing interesting things
with your common genealogy. Recently I was involved with a study of my
wife's Keith genealogy with a group of Keith/Keath/Keeth/etc. descendants
from all over the country. The fruits of the study were published this
fall containing about 800 pages of information! Good luck on your
endeavors. As a naval officer, the name Yarnell/Yarnall is very familiar
because of the famous men in the family for whom ships were named. Also I
want to delve into the information Paul Yarnall has at his website
concerning destroyers. My late father-in-law had command of USS Peary
DD-226 when the Japanese bombed Manila and Cavite in Dec. 1941. I'm
curious as to what he may have on the Peary to supplement what I have
collected. Now to John Purnell Peckworth:
John P. Peckworth was born in England and came to America in 1783
as a thirteen year old. Most of his life was spent in either Philadelphia,
PA or Wilmington, DE. He married Ann Lusk in the First Baptist Church,
Philadelphia in Feb. 1791 and had a daughter Ann born in Dec of that year.
John's wife died in Oct. of 1793 which was at the peak of a yellow fever
epidemic which killed about ten percent of the population at the time. I
think she must have been a yellow fever victim. John married for the
second time in Nov. 1794 to Jane Clark from Wilmington, DE. Jane, born in
Scotland in Oct. 1773, came to this country with her parents when she was
two years old. From their marriage in 1794 until Jane died, ten children
were born although five died in infancy. John married Mary Summers, a
Philadelphia girl, in Wilmington in Sept. 1820 and were married until his
death in 1845.
By trade John Purnell Peckworth was a ladies shoe maker. From the
Philadelphia Directories we find him with a business address at 139 S.
Second Street, Philadelphia. Apparently, John settled in Wilmington, DE
after arriving in America but was associated with the First Baptist Church
in Philadelphia by 1791 where his first two marriages were solemnized.
John was licensed by the church to preach in 1802 and ordained in 1805.
>From about 1802 to 1809 he was a shoemaker and an itinerant minister. As
the History of the Third Baptist Church, Philadelphia describes him: "...a
pounder on soles during the week, and an expounder to souls on the Lord's
Day." He was influential in the formation of the Third Baptist Church and
after it was built and chartered became the first pastor in Aug. 1809. He
continued his business and served the church without pay until 1812. As a
bit of side interest, his wife Sister Jane Clark had "taken up the Cross"
at age seventeen and carried on her ministry alongside her husband until
her death.
John and his family moved to Baltimore, MD in 1823; stayed there
for a period before returning to Wilmington, DE. In the years of 1841
through 1843, John Peckworth was living in Alexandria, which was part of
the District of Columbia at the time. It is interesting to read in his
notebook entries of that period such as: "1) Lewis Parker and Rebecca
Williams both persons of colour were united in marriage at Alexandria, D.C.
on Friday eve. March 12th AD 1841. $2 By me John P. Peckworth". He
returned again to Wilmington, DE where he died in 1845 at the age of 75.
A history of the Baptist Church describes the man as follows: "Mr.
Peckworth was an earnest, devoted Christian, soundly evangelical in his
belief, and largely favored with the Divine blessing upon his labors.
Though deficient in early literary culture, he was an acceptable preacher;
and, for his purity of character and zeal in his Master's work, was highly
esteemed by his brethern in the ministry, and by the churches he faithfully
served."
I was interested to find that Jefferson Peckworth Jones probably
had the Peckworth name from John P. Peckworth because he was a well-known
minister. In researching the Peckworths, a cousin and I ran across another
person with a Peckworth middle name and thought that there must be a family
connection but learned that wasn't so. This person also had lived in the
Philadelphia/ Wilmington area. But my cousin (third, twice removed) has a
father named David Peckworth Keller and,
obviously, there is a family reason for the Peckworth!
This is probably much more than you ever wanted to know about the
Reverend John P. Peckworth but once I got started I found it hard to stop.
In the old Third Baptist Church in Philadelphia there was a window
dedicated to JPP. That building burned in the 1960's and has been rebuilt.
The window survived and is currently stored in the basement in the boiler
room. My cousin and I are trying to figure how we can "save" the window
but I haven't had the opportunity to be in Philadelphia to visit the church
or talk to the current pastor about the window!.......Best regards to you
and your clan and good hunting! I, too, am deeply into genealogy and am
finding great rewards in discovering distant relatives and family history.
Dana Peckworth
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Now, one of my favorite parts of the newsletter, "The Family Circle
Person of the Month". This is when we get to read a little about the life
of one of our cousins. This month, since Nancy Brusseau Marshall has been
kind enough to share a little information about John L. Yarnell and we have
been able to trace her line through Francis Yarnall, we have prevailed upon
her to share some information about herself with the rest of the family. -
and she has kindly agreed.. So lets let her tell us in her own words.
"First, I owe my interest in family history to my beloved, late
"Grammie", Olive Prichard Stewart and her sister-in-law, Dovie Stewart
Lawrence. I am 46 yrs. old (as of tomorrow), happily married to Andrew
"Scott" Marshall and the proud mom of a 17 yr. old high school senior and
an 18 yr. old college freshman. I was born to Paul Brusseau and Barbara
Stewart Brusseau in 1952 at the fledgling Kaiser Hospital in Oakland CA. I
am a California girl, born & bred. I lived most of my life in the Bay Area
(that wonderful area surrounding San Francisco Bay). I moved into The City
San Francisco) with my husband to attend undergraduate studies and ended up
living there for 10 years.
"I have a BA in Social Work rom San Francisco State University.
Both of my daughters were born there. While SF is a wonderful town to be a
young adult in, it isn't much fun to raise children in. We moved up to
Sacramento, the State capitol, in 1981 and haven't looked back. I received
my graduate degree in Social Work in 1993 from California State
University, Sacramento. I have always worked with children; mostly in
shelters and residential treatment settings, first as a counselor then as a
social worker. Ten years ago, I went to work for Sacramento County's
Children's Protective Services, where I am now in management. I have also
taught at my alma mater in graduate social work, and still do frequent
guest lectures.
"With all the above information re. education and profession, it is
interesting to note that I am a third generation social worker. My Grammie
retired from the "Fresno County (CA) Welfare Department; my mom from the
Contra Costa Co. (CA) Social Services Department and I plan on retiring
from Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services. Notice how
the names of the agencies have evolved?
My hobbies are GENEALOGY, family, walking and gardening.
Thank you Nancy for sharing this little snap shot of yourself with
the rest of the family. I understand that you are planning on visiting the
Philadelphia area in March and as I noted in my Email to you, it is a shame
that you can't delay that visit until the family picnic on Saturday July
11th, 1998 - wow, did I get to mention the picnic again? Pretty sneaky!
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PART 6............
"THERE WERE KINSMEN OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN SCHUYLKILL COUNTY"
A Paper Prepared and Written for The Historical Society of Schuylkill
County, Pennsylvania By Edgar Downey.
Francis Yarnall married Mary Lincoln about 1741. He was born in
Chester County in 1719 and was a Quaker. In the spring of 1740, he came to
Berks County with his cousin, Joseph, holding a certificate of membershjip
from the goshen Monthly Meeting. This certificate was presented to the
Exeter Monthly Meeting and was accepted. He is said to have been a fair
scholar and was a practical surveyor and soon acquired a good business with
his compass and chain. In 1759 he was chosen as the trusted assistant of
Benjamin Lightfoot in making the first survey for a road to Fort Augusta.
About 1755 Yarnall took up a tract of land in Manheim Township (now North
Manheim), near the Schuylkill, on which he erected a mill that became noted
as the starting point of several surveys for the Provincial road. This
tract is included in some of the land, now owned by the Schuylkill County
Institution District. In 1765 he turned his mill property over to his
son-in-law, Ellis Hughes, and, in 1766, took up a tract of land upon which
a large portion of Port Carbon is now built. This latter tract is still
known as the Yarnall Tract and is underlaid with anthracite coal. He
cleared some of this land and erected buildings thereon. He placed his
cousin, Joseph, in charge thereof, but the buildings were beyond the border
line of settlement, and the Indians came along, chased the family away and
burned the buildings.
The road to Fort Augusta, of which mention has already been made,
had not yet been built. Early in 1770 a commission was appointed to lay out
this road, and Francis Yarnall was placed in charge of the survey,
completing it promptly and showing much engineering skill in his work.
While on this survey he noted some fine farm land in the vicinity of
Taylorsville, Barry Township, and became so impressed with it that shortly
thereafter he took up a large tract of land there, moved his family on it
and cleared the land for several farms. Northumberland County was organized
in 1772 and its southern line had not yet been run. For several years
Yarnall was assessed as a resident of Augusta Township in that county. He
was one of the three persons in that township to receive a license to keep
a public house. Years later a the line of Northumberland County was
accurately determined and this placed him in Berks County. In 1811 the land
where his farms were located became a part of Schuylkill County and is now
in Barry Township.
The Great Road, of King's Highway, ran through his farms, and his
property afforded an excellent site for an inn to accommodate the
travelers, who came in large numbers over the new road bound for lands
beyond where they sought to make new settlements. On this land Francis
Yarnall and Mary Lincoln Yarnall, his wife, passed the rest of their days
and on to their final reward. Their remains lie buried in the old burial
ground, known as Reed's Cemetery, just off the side of the Great Road,
which he had so well planned. It also lies on the south bank of the Mahanoy
Creek at a point near where a covered bridge spans the stream and joins the
road from the south to its continuation on the north bank. The graves of
Francis and Great-grandaunt Mary are unmarked and obliterated by the coal
dirt and refuse, which cover the burial ground, washed there by the flood
waters of the creek. A few markers on the graves of Yarnall's still stand
above the coal wash and the tangled bushes, which grow there. The dates of
death of Francis and Mary are unknown.
In a letter, written to Solomon Lincoln in 1848, Abraham Lincoln
stated, "It is my father's understanding that Abraham, Mordecai and Thomas
are old family names of ours. My grandfather had, as I think I have heard,
four brothers: Isaac, Jacob, Thomas and John. He had three sons: Mordecai,
Josiah and Thomas, the last my father. The "old family names" of the
Lincoln family, we have observed, were taken, almost without exception,
from biblical characters and persons. These "old family names" occur also
in the Yarnall family, the family of Francis Yarnall and Great - grandaunt
Mary Lincoln Yarnall. Through these traditional Christian names we can
reasonably identify the Yarnall's of Schuylkill County, who bore them, as
kinsmen of Abraham Lincoln. There was a Mordecai Yarnall, named after Mary
Lincoln Yarnall's father, Mordecai Lincoln. Like Francis Yarnall, Mordecai,
his son, was a surveyor. Old maps of schuylkill County show tracts of land
with Mordecai Yarnall's name as the Warrantee. There was Isaac Yarnall,
whose Christian name also was used by Lincolns. He was a member of the
first Grand Jury to meet and serve in Schuylkill County. There was also a
Jesse Yarnall, another Christian name occurring in the Lincoln family. At
the time of his death, Jesse Yarnall was the owner of about 1500 acres of
land at Taylorsville, Barry Township, Schuylkill County, and also of a
valuable tract of 200 acres, now the site of Mount Carmel, Northumberland
County. There was a daughter, Hannah, named after Hannah Lincoln Millard, a
sister of Great - grandaunt Mary Lincoln Yarnall. Hannah Yarnall became the
wife of Ellis Hughes, to whom Francis Yarnall, her father, turned over his
sawmill, located in the vicinity of Connors Crossing in 1765. There was
also a daughter, Mary, named after Great - grandaunt Mary Lincoln Yarnall
herself. Mary Yarnall married her mother's nephew, John Lincoln, son of
Great - grandfather Virginia John Lincoln. Today the marriage of first
cousins is unlawful. By her marriage, Mary Yarnall Lincoln, to whom Abraham
Lincoln was a first cousin twice removed, became his grandaunt by marriage.
Her husband, Virginia John's son, was born in Berks County. He had
migrated with his father to Virginia and later left that state. He and his
cousin-wife settled in Lebanon, Ohio, where he died in 1835.
The biblical names, so common in the Lincoln family, occur among
the descendants of Francis Yarnall and Great-grand-aunt Mary Lincoln
Yarnall. In the eighteen-eighties, the farm at Taylorsville was owned by
Miss Lydia Yarnall, whose Christian name had been that of one of Virginia
John Lincoln's twin daughters, Hannah and Lydia. So we can say there were
kinsmen of Abraham Lincoln in Schuylkill County.
..................TO BE CONTINUED
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Most of you, who have been receiving the newsletter for the past
few years, know how I feel about the course that this country seems to be
headed with regard to the dismantling of the family unit. We can see it
taking place with the two income families, where if there are children,
they are being raised by a third party - whether that third party is a
private contractior or the state. We have seen one court decision after
another rip at the Christian tapestry that was such an important part in
the devlopment of the Government and of this country. We can look back on
our family and see a rich tradition of community service, service for the
preservation of the nation, and service in the spiritual affairs of their
families and friends. How will our descendants be able to look back on us?
Will there even be a discernable family to look back upon, as the family
unit is destroyed? I just would like us to be aware of the possibilities
and to lift our voices in protest when we see the course of human events
being legislated out of existence. In that regard, I have postponed the
previous article (On Myths) that we were reading from " The Rebirth of
America."
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"The U.S. Gobernment: Master or Servant?
published by "The Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation" in
The Rebirth of America.
Once upon a time the people controlled the Government.
Perhaps the Government is changing that.
The legitamate purpose of government since the founding of America
has been to protect the lives, liberty, and property of its citizens. James
Madison summed it up well when he said, "We have staked the whole future of
American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We
have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the
capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves,
to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments sof God."
Our founding fathers based our system of government on the First
Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." They understood
that man was ceated to serve God, not the state. Since man was created in
God's image, government, they reasoned, should be an aid to help secure
man's God-endowed rights. They instituted a system of representative
government with clear limits upon what government could and could not do.
This was carefully and meticulously carried out to ensure individual
freedom.
Since the founding of our nation the goal of institutionalized
government has been to be a servant of mankind, never the master of man.
The framers of our Constitution advocated that people govern themselves
under God's laws. Government should never have the power to deprive
individuals of rights that the Constituition stated were "endowed by their
Creator." The Declaration of Independence states that governments derive
"their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed," and that "whenever
any Form of government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right
of the People to alter or to abolish it...."
Today we find that government is threatening our basic freedoms.
Currently, more than 40 percent of a citizen's income is disposed of on his
behalf by the government at the federal, state, and local levels. As late
as 1928 federal governmental spending amounted to only 3 percent of the
national income. In his book "The Sum of Good Government", U.S.
Representative Phillip Crane quotes Dr. Roger Freeman: "By its massive
entry over the past two decades into the field of domestic public services,
the national government has decisively altered the nature of the American
federal system. In establishing a federal structure with an intricate
system of checks and balances, the founding fathers had aimed to disperse
authority so widely that no one branch or level of government--and no one
man---could prevail over the others. They concluded from history that
concentration of power corrupts and sooner or later leads to abuse and
tyranny. Whenever the wisdom of the age-old lesson is disregarded, its
truth is brought home to the nation sooner or later with a brutal
shock...American society has strayed far from its beginnings. Instead of
desiring freedom from governmental interference; instead of looking to the
government primarily as a source of protection from foreign or domestic
enemies and not as the provider of services and benefits, Americans have
embraced the very centralized government the founding fathers urged them to
fear and hold in check."
We have allowed government to become all-powerful today as we have
foolishly exchanged freedom for security. Economist Milton Friedman points
out, "The economic controls that have proliferated in the United States in
recent decades have not only restricted our freedom to use our economic
resources, they have also affected our freedom of speech, of press, and of
religion." We must awake to the fact that we have been educated to
dependence rather than to liberty, that we have been so brainwashed by
television and books to believe that it is the responsibility of government
to take resources from some and bestow them upon others. Why have we done
this? U.S. Senator Jesse Helms provides the answer, "When you have men who
no longer believe that God is in charge of human affairs, you have men
attempting to take the place of God by means of the Superstate. The Divine
Providence on which our forefathers relied has been supplanted by the
Providence of the All Powerful State. I believe that this is the source of
deep weakness in america, because it is a transgression of the first and
greatest of the Ten Commandments.
Much love,
Fred
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will
keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and
make our abode with him.